RIP LEONARD NIMOY

And a bit more of our youth slips away...

Leonard Nimoy passed away today.  I'll admit, big old Trekkie here (and so is 2nd Man as well as many of our extended family and friends).  Others from the cast have passed as well over the years, but he was special.  We all probably identified with one of the characters on the show, and I perhaps identified with him the most.  Someone different, someone who might be considered an outcast in different circumstances, but someone that proved they could rise above any those differences and do good things.  

I had the pleasure of meeting him in person when I was younger, and I can say he was the kindest and most genuine "star" you could ever meet.  He truly appreciated the fans.  How fitting that his final, beautiful tweet was a quote with a garden reference about life...

On February 22, he tweeted:

"A life is like a garden.  Perfect moments can be had, but not preserved, except in memory.  LLAP"

Thank you Mr. Nimoy, for making my childhood more adventurous and my adulthood more purposeful.

You lived long, but not long enough, and you made us prosper.

BACK OF HOUSE

Not sure if we've ever shared this angle of the house.  It's the back, from what is essentially the backyard, near the fig trees.  

The two window units are in the windows of each bedroom.  The little window in between them is the bathroom.  On the left side of the picture is the set of stairs that lead off the porch and toward Barnabas (the party/dinner tree) from the front door, and on the right side of the picture, the bump out where the roof slopes down, is the dining room.

Back of farmhouse, pier and beam

For those not familiar, this house is what's called "pier and beam".  There is no concrete foundation or "slab", instead the house is built up, on "piers" which are the concrete cinder blocks (often bricks are used as well) and across each of those lies a "beam".  It is this beam that the floor of the house sits on.  The upside is that it makes it very easy for working underneath the house, for example moving pipes if you are plumbing, running wiring (though ours is mostly in the attic and walls) and/or leveling the house.  There are a couple of downsides to this as well.  One is that creatures can get under your house, and the other is that in Winter, you have to worry about freezing pipes.  

Now most homes like this put up lattice or something along the bottom to keep out the animals and this is something we have planned.  It's on our list but just not quite at the "top" yet.  Then of course planting bushes and other plants around the outside to keep it looking nice is important as well...we haven't done that yet because when we work on the exterior and have the roof done, we figured no point in getting everything trampled down.  But that being said, it looks a bit barren, I might plant a few things this Spring.

YARD PLANTINGS AROUND WHITE FENCE, INSPIRATION THURSDAY

Planting areas in yard, image courtesy of Southernliving.com

Here in the middle of Winter, cold, dreary, and (for many of us) frozen...it's nice to see pretty pictures like this and dream of Spring, right?  We love the various ares of plantings in this picture.  We're also leaning toward painting our garden fence white.  We have let it weather but we still keep coming back to pictures with white picket fences and we love it so much.  

We will have that to think about this Spring and so many other things to do, but of course, it's fun to plan and dream now.  Where does one start with something like this?  Perhaps right around the fence and then spread outward...

Be inspired!

DEHYDRATING MUSHROOMS

Since it's cold and the added warmth in the house is OK, we broke out the dehydrator.  We decided to try mushrooms and bought two packages that were on sale.  They were white and baby bella varieties.

Buying them already sliced made it so much easier to start them.  We put them on two trays, one bag on each, and dried them at 125 degrees for about 12 hours.

Whoa, where did they go?  LOL!  They're all there, just much smaller than they were when they started.  Amazing how much moisture they hold.  Nevertheless, we bagged them, vacuum sealed them and stored them in the pantry, until the right recipe comes along!

MOONLIGHT GLOW

This is the moon one evening at the farm...the camera usually takes a sharp clear picture of the moon when I've done it in the past...but on this particular evening, the moon had such a bright glow...

Moon quote

...it was almost as if it was lit up from the inside.  Definitely a beautiful sight from the front porch as it rose over the trees.  Yet another thing we love about having our place away from the city.  

It just doesn't get any better than this!

BARN LOFT STORAGE CONTAINER IDEAS

Taking stuff to the barn this weekend had us wondering how best to use our storage.  We'll have questions about other types of storage ideas (a few of you have already found some great ideas!) but for this first post about it, we want to ask about storage containers...

Loft in barn

These are the two lofts in our new barn, one at each end of the building.  They are four feet deep, sixteen feet long and have about six feet clearance above.  They're even big enough to get up there and walk around.  We wanted them so that we could use them for storage of items that wouldn't fit in the house, rarely used items, for example, holiday decorations, extra dishes and supplies, etc.

Barn loft

So our question is this; does anyone have any advice for storing things in an environment like this?  Obviously we know cardboard is a no-no.  We want something that will keep the things inside as safe as possible from bugs, rodents, etc., and that won't collapse if we stack things on top of them.  

We immediately thought of Rubbermaid storage totes, but there are so many different types...different types of lids, taller, shorter, wider, etc.  We looked at the Sterilite brand at the store the other day but they seem kinda flimsy to hold up for several years of storage.

Any storage suggestions?  
Brands?  Sizes?  Styles?

DAYTONA 500 RACE DAY

Today we are staying in town.  It's rainy and getting cooler anyway...but even if it had been a nice day, we'd give it up for some television.  We are big NASCAR fans...I know, I know, probably seems kind of odd.

2015 Daytona 500 

We both enjoy the racing and watching the drivers handle those cars at such amazing speeds.  Funny thing is, we're not so much into the Indy Car or other types of racing, just enjoy NASCAR.  Could be the driver personalities and associated drama, ha. 

On the menu for today is Frito Pie and Dewberry Cobbler...yum!

Of course, later tonight, The Oscars!

More sometime this evening (and will catch up on comments)!

SATURDAY UPDATE

These were the skies as we left town to head to the farm.  The forecasters were off by a day, but we were determined to make the best of it.

Dark Skies

We got there and it was a bit lighter than the drive in but it was coming. 

We brought the hives that have been in town since before Christmas and put them in the barn.  I took all the pieces out of the boxes and put them together.  They will need to be painted soon but at least they are out of the living room.

Then I spent about two hours running stuff back and forth from the house to the buildings...utilizing the garden cart made life much easier, LOL.

Mudroom Shelves

2nd Man is so excited.  We he now has an entirely empty set of shelves in the mudroom...space for more food, cooking supplies and things kitchen related!

The funny thing is though, I realized as I took all the stuff to the barn, there are no shelves out there!  I'll need to buy some and start getting places for things to be stored and organized.  But for now, the floor will work fine.

By mid afternoon, it was getting darker and darker and then the skies opened up and the rain came.  At least we felt somewhat accomplished for the day.

Hope your weekend is productive!

MOVING DAY

NO, not that kind of moving!  (but someday!)

Nope, we're off to the farm, before the weather takes a turn...

Red Barn Roof Line

...and from the house in town, we have a full load of stuff to take out to the new buildings, including the (empty) beehives and the various other bee related things we've been purchasing along the way (more on those things soon) as well as some large boxes currently taking up space in the guest room.  Once we get there, we also plan to get all the gardening/outdoor related items out of the mudroom...and the kitchen...and the closets...and off the porch...well, you get the picture.  Those things seem to multiply exponentially when they have no home.  NOW they have a home!  

Hope you are having a good start to the weekend!  

More later when we get back into town.  We just need to beat the rain and cold...it looks like Winter is about to come roaring back to our area.